Witnesses to the committee in March were critical of the "oligopoly" of systems integrators that dominate so many government IT contracts.

Martin Rice, chief executive of software development company Erudine, slammed the IT sector for taking advantage of the government's lack of in-house IT expertise.

Since Rice gave evidence to the select committee, Erudine has collapsed after a major private sector customer refused to pay an unpaid bill. But Rice also cited the difficulty of winning government deals as a factor in the firm's demise.

In his Computer Weekly blog, Philip Virgo, secretary general of parliamentary IT lobby group Eurim, said he expects the IT industry to get a "kicking", but warned against knee-jerk reactions to any criticisms by MPs.

"It is difficult for many of those who work in IT to comprehend just how unpopular their industry is with politicians and the public. We have many excuses as to why we are 'misunderstood'. However, I fear that we are 'understood' by politicians rather better than we 'understand' them," he said.

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